Embrace of the Medusi (The Overlords Trilogy Book 2)

by Toby Andersen

  It is this author’s most fervent wish, that a scholar out there takes it upon themselves to study and translate this language. Were we to be able to communicate with the Luacha, might we have truly found another intelligent species on our own planet?

  NEPENTH

  Referred to in obeisance and common parlance as

  King Coral, The Slow Death, Ring Field Coral

  Many of the creatures in this bestiary are rarely sighted, and the sum total of our knowledge of them is held between these pages. None more so than the possibly extinct Nepenth, which deserves its place in this Bestiary by being the only known carnivorous coral.

  Choosing its habitat as much on the shore as below the ocean surface, the Nepenth is a magenta coloured coral that grows to huge proportions if prey is plentiful. The above the water-line portion, consists of a shelf of dark holes that can look to the unsuspecting like a rocky crag. When stimulated by rains or the proximity of unwary prey, spindly frond-like tendrils emerge from these holes, wrap around the victim and draw it down inside.

  Underneath, the Nepenth looks like a completely different creature altogether. Each hole leads down into a distended acid-filled stomach pod, where the victim is digested slowly over a lunar cycle. Most creatures would not last this long, dying instead of starvation or the acid itself. The acid in these myriad stomachs is strong and can eat away skin and muscle in a few days. Harder substances like bone and cartilage take more of the full cycle. Once digested, the nutrients pass through the bottom of the stomach, down the equivalent of an intestinal pipe, into the Nepenth’s root system, and finally the surrounding coral and any adjacent shoreline.

  Primitive tribes have been known to feed their dead to a nearby Nepenth, which would in turn make the surrounding area fruitful and mineral rich. They would arrange their most important crop in concentric semi-circles back inland from the Nepenth epicentre. It is unknown how many unfortunate farm-hands succumbed to the creatures in pre-history.

  In modern times, with modern agriculture methods, Nepenth’s are exceptionally rare. For this compendium, I was unable to find reference to a single verifiable specimen anywhere on the continent. The only surviving account I did find was attributed to farming communities in the far north of Andromedan lands, which was dated over a thousand years ago.

  RADCHIS

  Referred to in obeisance and common parlance as

  Ferafox, Devils.

  A ferocious rodent, grown to the size of a small fox, the Radchis thinks itself the apex predator in its common forest habitat. In most cases this is an unchallenged claim, but the Radchis has an ego inflated way beyond its diminutive size, that can see it tangle with larger and far more deadly predators when it would seem foolhardy.

  Its needle-sharp claws tend toward the predatory, but it’s large black dome-like eyes belie its origins on the lower rungs of the food-chain. The Radchis is an agile hunter, capable of pouncing on unsuspecting prey from as much as five yards away, despite only being around a foot long. They can leap into trees and out of branches, and are just as at home vertical or even upside down. Its claws allow it to climb trees like a squirrel.

  It has a long blue tongue, unique as far as this researcher is aware in the mammalian classification. This it uses to taste the air much like a lizard or snake.

  Due to its small size and adept hunting capabilities, the Radchis has been the subject of many abortive domestication attempts. It was thought that, like the wolf, the Radchis could be tamed and selectively bred into a more docile companion animal. But unlike the dog, each experiment with Radchis came to nothing, often resulting in injuries and the deaths of their handlers.

  And therein lies the quintessential Radchis condition; its outsized attitude, for want of a better term, is untameable. Radchis are feral and continue to be so, unwillingly to be shaped by human hands, maniacally bent on staying wild. This rebellious streak has a dark side for the Radchis though. Many cubs throw themselves into scraps at a young age, often with more dangerous animals, and don’t make it to adulthood. The ones that do are the ones who are necessarily a little less feral and a little more circumspect. These are the ones that breed, and pass their traits on to the next generation. Where farmers have failed, the Radchis’ own spirit may be slowly breeding out its own nature.

  SKRAYELS

  Referred to in obeisance and common parlance as

  The Skrayel, like the Nepenth, tests the boundary between flora and fauna.

  With no legs, a long flexible body, like that of an eel, and a front end with a gaping maw filled with hundreds of snapping teeth, scholars could be forgiven for placing this creature with other carnivorous underwater life. However, Skrayel breath oxygen like land-based animals, and live their entire lives at high altitudes, such as the cold Cartracian mountain range, hundreds of miles from the sea, or standing water of any kind. It makes its home instead beneath the snow-covered surface, burrowing into the ground to its full length, with only its head above ground, but still under the snow. Around its neck, it has a series of sensory whiskers, tendrils like a catfish, that sense vibrations in the ground and snow nearby. The range isn’t large, but that is deliberate; as a likely prey creature trips these sensors, the Skrayel bursts from the ground, snapping its jaws and catching the prey in a deadly bite.

  So far, so fauna. It is the hind-quarters of the creature that give rise to its confusing classification. Instead of a tail, the Skrayel has a muscular root system; these tendrils anchor it in its underground home, but also when the need arises, they bunch and propel the Skrayel out of its burrow to catch prey. The roots work in the same way as they do with plants, sucking in nutrients and water, and occasionally unsuspecting worms. These it grasps and eats backwards; what many early scholars assumed was an anus, is in fact also a mouth, evolved only to eat the smaller prey underground. It uses the same orifice to excrete the scant amount of undigestible waste.

  The Skrayel can survive for many years on the secondary mouth and root system only, subsisting on this meagre diet. Though its mouth and teeth make it seem carnivorous, prey seldom appear in its habitat.

  Apart from the digestive system, at either end, the rest of the creature is built more like a large flexible cucumber, or cactus, storing fleshy deposits of water and minerals for the leaner times. It is said they taste like a combination of legume and oyster.

  THUNWING

  No common names found.

  No second volume of Arceth fauna would be complete without the majestic Thunwing. Neither mollusc nor mammal, like the Luacha, the Thunwing defies classification.

  Thunwing’s are shaped like a long flight-worthy seal, and their bodies resemble these creatures in some specifics. They are warm-blooded, blubbery and cumbersome when moving on land. Many have compared them also to a large slug; like both creatures, the Thunwing has no legs, relying instead on three pairs of wings to help them move. The first and largest set, up near the head, are the most like a seal’s flippers, but are shaped like a splayed hand. They do not have feathers but soft almost inflated appendages, like a few dozen fingers. These wings stretch up to ten feet across on the largest males. The second smaller wing pair usually sits halfway down the body, allowing for skilled manoeuvrability in flight. The last is more like a tail, acting as a rudder would on a fast vessel.

  Like the Luacha, the Thunwing sports antenna, for spatial awareness in flight; in combination with their three sets of wings they become skilled acrobats in the sky, able to turn and pivot, perform barrel-rolls and somersaults, and generally put most bird species to shame.

  Like birds, Thunwings practice sexual selection, the males sporting vivid colours akin to plumage across the belly. The mares are duller in colouring, but they are the ones that choose the more colourful males, and perpetuate a constant arms race towards further vibrancy. They also have hollow bones like their avian cousins and this is generally attributed to be the reason they can fly so easily. They are without a helio-sac, for example, which propels the Medusi in
to the air.

  Thunwings have proved elusive study specimens. There is no know record of breeding grounds anywhere on Arceth, and most sightings have been congregated either far out at sea around precarious cliffs, or high up in the Floating Island archipelago. Both types of habitat afford the Thunwing a necessary aid; they have a great deal of trouble launching into flight from a flat surface, instead requiring a drop from a cliff face, or indeed from the islands that float above us.

  The similarities with the Luacha have led some scholars to posit a shared ancestor. The creature’s intelligence and social behaviour are similar, as well as their antenna and skin, but one must discount the rather obvious differences between having strong stilt-like legs and replacing them with fleshy wings. However, not to sound dismissive, this author points out that all creatures have a shared ancestor if we reverse time far enough.

  TRELKI

  Pronounced ‘Trel-key’.

  Referred to in obeisance and common parlance as

  Lullaby Eels, Sirens, Forest Songstress.

  In amongst what is already a compendium of the strangest animals in all of Arceth, the Trelki may be the strangest. For what other creature has the ability to affect its prey’s mind directly. Many legends surround this most enigmatic and frightening creature.

  Physically, the Trelki is relatively simple; a bright white-blue eel, with an oversize jaw and distended fangs, it tastes the air with a tongue like a snake. The lower jaw is so heavy with it razor sharp upward-facing fangs, that the Trelki is unable to fully close its mouth. Four to five feet long, it has a muscular body like the aforementioned snake, which it uses both to hold itself inside its tree home, and to constrict and squeeze the life from its unfortunate victims.

  Like an owl, the Trelki’s digestive system isn’t especially strong and it has a habit of coughing up small dry parcels consisting of the bones or feathers that it did not digest. These are often the only sign of danger before entering its territory.

  What makes the Trelki unique, is its mysterious song. Many other creatures and many human hunters besides, have fallen to this siren’s lullaby.

  Produced in the mind of the Trelki, rather than vocally, the word song is a misnomer, but I will continue to use it; it’s a trance-like hypnotic effect that goes straight to the victim’s mind telepathically, without entering via the ears. As such it is impossible to counter. The Trelki lures its prey with this deceptive song, coaxing them out of the undergrowth, and towards the source, and it’s waiting jaws. It seems there is a certain range to this effect, and the area around a Trelki nest can appear as a dead zone in a forest.

  Very few hunter’s have survived an encounter with a Trelki to tell the tale, but those who have speak of a dark lullaby blossoming in their minds, deadening all thought of escape or danger, and drawing them forward. They have described feeling as if the Trelki represented safety.

  There is much debate over the stories of the Trelki’s song. Does it represent intelligence, is it speaking to its victim’s in their own language, with deadly intent? Or is it simply a passive automatic effect that surrounds the otherwise ignorant Trelki, simply an aid to catching prey effectively? Many creatures have been ascribed intent where none was really evident, and many others have intent (such as to eat) but not intelligence. It is the opinion of this author that the Trelki is too small for real intelligence to exist. The other creatures of Arceth who demonstrate viable signs of intelligence all features larger cranium size, and more intricate brain structure. The Trelki’s brain is tiny in comparison to a Luacha, Thunwing, or human, and much of it is dedicated to producing its telepathic lure.

  However, this question bears further study. Could one be caught safely and studied? If it were encased in a glass cage, a team of researchers would be safe from strikes, yet be able to study the song in great detail, always with colleagues out of range, to raise them once again from its effects.

  XANTUSI

  Pronounced ‘zan-too-see’.

  No common names found.

  The Xantusi is a rare winged reptile distantly related to the Trelki. Where the Trelki has lost its limbs, the Xantusi retains its original appendages. They are generally only found in the deserts to the far west, beyond the reaches of the Therian Empire. A large diamond-shaped head hides a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, evolved to rip and shred its prey. The Xantusi is an opportunistic feeder, happy mostly to scavenge at a larger predator’s kill, but they are more than capable of taking down creatures many times their small size. Xantusi kept in captivity have been observed to become lazy and reliant on their handler’s feedings, but many hunters starve them for weeks before putting them to work, creating an effective, if dangerous, companion hunter.

  Of all the lizard species on Arceth, the Xantusi is the one with the sharpest and most refined sense of smell. A single lizard can track its prey for miles at a time, picking up on the subtle notes in the air, before swooping in and attacking with ferocious abandon.

  Its wings are nothing like those of a bird, but closer in comparison to those of a bat; the Xantusi’s wing is scaled and in between each talon is a membrane of thin but strong skin. They can flap to hover in the air, without needing forward momentum to maintain altitude. Their wings are like a separate set of limbs, leaving the front and back legs for attack and climbing. Like it’s smaller lizard cousins, the geckos, the Xantusi also has soft pads under its fingers, which allow it to stick to walls and seemingly defy gravity.

  MEDUSI GENERALIS

  Pronounced ‘Med-oos-i’.

  Readers of my first volume, dedicated almost entirely to the species of Aerozoa, or Medusi, that abound on Arceth, nevertheless remarked that there were some general traits across the study of Medusi that I had neglected to cover in enough detail. Upon reflection, I feel this criticism justified, and have included in this second volume, a number of cross-species subjects of which we all, citizens of Arceth, are keenly aware, but have not studied in scientific detail. Many scholars have, and I am but a humble regurgitator of their wisdom.

  Thralling and Disconnection

  The practice of thralling has ebbed and flowed through the centuries. During some eras it was considered all the rage to have a Medusi connection, where in others it was taboo, akin to incest or bestiality. Followers of the practice of Medology have been the most likely to consistently be thralled despite the cultural norms of the time period; their Healers and Speakers were thralled in order to perform their roles within the temple.

  Thralling is the process by which a Medusi, generally a Common or Wild variety, joins with a human host. Humans with a Medusi attached, are referred to as thralls. The Medusi can be, and often is, benign, conferring on its thrall no particular benefit. The Common will stay with one thrall for the majority of its life, slowly draining the thrall of their life force. Thralls often live shorter lives due to their choice, and age far faster. In some cases, however, and herein lies the temptation, a Medusi can impart in its thrall certain abilities. These range from enhanced sight, smell, and taste, to strength, healing and even precognition.

  Please see the entry on common Medusi for more regarding thralling.

  So what happens when the thrall changes their mind and wishes to remove the symbiotic Medusi? What seemed initially a simple lifestyle choice, is then imbued with gravitas; a Medusi cannot be removed from its thrall without death being the result.

  A Medusi’s thralling tentacle is an incredible device. Even disregarding the complexity of connecting with another creature’s nervous system, where it physically connects with the spinal column of the thrall, there exist a number of glands; normally these send out hormones and numbing agents to make the thralling seem more pleasurable to the thrall, however, if the thralling tentacle is removed forcibly, these glands detach inside the spine of the thrall, flooding the nervous system and bloodstream with a poison that can kill in less than a minute. It doesn’t matter whether the tube is removed painstakingly with surgical precision, or chopped through
mid-stalk, the glands will erupt or detach, killing the patient.

  The choice to become a thrall is a life or death choice. The possible gain of abilities can make one a sought-after commodity, from business to monarchy, but it will drain and eventually kill earlier than might otherwise have been the case. If one regrets this choice, it is too late; to attempt to remove the Medusi means certain death. Thralling is a life sentence.

  On the other hand, if a thrall dies, there is little to stop the Medusi from detaching itself and finding a new, younger host, and beginning the process anew.

  Crystals

  Another topic I didn’t touch on in my earlier volume was that of crystals. Medusi of almost all species, from the magnificent Celestials, down to the smallest Cephea, slowly produce a tiny crystal at the centre of their mass. This crystal seems to serve the purpose of a heart, keeping the Medusi alive. The process is much like that of an oyster creating a pearl by building layers of mucus around grit.

  The Medusi drains its thralls of life, slowly growing the crystal inside them as the human ages and dies. The more life it drains from thralls, the larger the crystal becomes.

  Much study has been made of Medusi crystals, yet we are no closer to determining their use, or indeed how life itself creates them, even though it is the learned consensus.

  Medusi crystals have fetched a high price from time immemorial, their value determinate on their size and complexity. The banks of Theris and Balor keep reserves of Medusi crystals to guarantee their ability to pay money to their clients.